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The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The Scheme by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D, R.I.) is a stunning, sobering and, indeed, chilling account of how the radical right, funded by dark money, has captured the U. S. Supreme Court. It is a well-documented review of the decades-long…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The holiday season signals a time for relaxation, fewer meetings, fewer blogs, and more time for friends, movies and reading. Here are some recent offerings in the latter category. The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell, author of Hamnet,  draws again on…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Whew! Senator Raphael Warnock was reelected to the United States Senate, giving the Democrats a 51-49 margin. But wait! Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, concerned about holding her seat in 2024, just switched from Democrat to Independent. So the numbers…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Mid-term exuberance may be irrational, but surely we are entitled to enjoy the respite from the deep anxiety and foreboding of the days leading up to the election. The dreaded Red Wave turned into a Pink Dribble, and…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. It was always going to be a tough mid-term election, based on history. Only in 1934 and 2002 did a first-term President’s party not suffer Congressional losses.  In those two cases, the public rallied to an existential crisis,…

On October 6, 2022, the Coalition for a Better Acre celebrated its 40th anniversary with a gala event at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. The CBA started as a grassroots organization determined to save the neighborhood from an urban renewal plan that would have displaced hundreds. The CBA succeeded and has…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The critically important Pennsylvania Senate race between Lt. Governor John Fetterman and TV celebrity Mehmet Oz – whom Oprah Winfrey used to call “America’s Doctor – is too close to call. Winfrey gave Oz his big break. He…

This essay originally appeared in the Boston Globe Ideas section on Sunday, October 23, 2022, and on bostonglobe.com on October 19.     October Dreaming By David Daniel October is a month of mystic meanings. Of marigolds and wild asters and the ripe honey scent of Concord grapes on the…

In 2006 I wrote the following WUML Sunrise essay.  It was inspired by a Cold War relic discovered while browsing through a salvage/antique shop. The nuclear survival guide, “Protection in the Nuclear Age”, struck me as quaint and out-of-date given that we were in a relatively warmer era with no…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Several years back, I was driving west on Route 9 in Wellesley. While stopped in the passing lane at a red light, my car was hit from behind. Since the light was still red, I got out to…